Day 2 ( from Mom's house to Palm Beach)

We got up, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for another day of adventure. We decided to meander to the old Fort St. Augustine. Mark, Eric and Teri, and I were on our bikes ready to roll, waiting on Scott, have I mentioned… Again? Unclear what he was doing and knowing the fort was only a half a mile down the road, we decided to go, he could catch up.

We got there, parked, paid, got maps, talked for a bit to the attendant, and began our trek to sight see… Then we got the call, from Scott, where are you at? Now if you have ever been to St. Augustine and you hotel’ed a half mile from the fort, you know what we were thinking, I sent the group on and waited another ten minutes and Scott rode up, we explored St. Augustine a bit, a wonderful city of history. On to breakfast…

Breakfast, more like a brunch, was at the Oasis, another fine recommendation from June Gemmer. Good food and view, really fun sharing stories with friends. On our departure, I imposed a “3 minute” rule, once everyone is ready to get going, you have 3 minutes for kickstands up.

This worked really well, Mark, Eric and Teri, and I were at the rode, again waiting on Scott. I yelled, one minute warning, to which passed and we began our journey, without Scott. He did catch up to us later down the road, we weren’t too concerned, he was the only one after all packing a GPS.

We rode the Florida East coast on A1A to Daytona Beach, got out a couple of times and let the sand fill the lacings of our steel toed biker boots. The ride was outstanding, beautiful weather, still a bit cool and a lot of wind. It was a fun ride.

On to Mark’s mom home, after all it was his birthday. Over the hills (this is an exaggeration, after all, we were in Florida) and through the woods, the Black Bear/ Ocala National Forest to be concise**, It was a nice change of scenery from the beach, but not as nice as expected. There were a couple of scenic spots which made it nice, but still a bit disappointing.

** (http://www.floridablackbearscenicbyway.org/explore/parks/ocala-national-forest)

We got to Mark’s moms in Oviedo, Fl. His brother, Lary (note the one “r”), was there with his wife and kids. His mom had a very nice enchilada dinner prepared, we ate with the family and sat around for some nice talks. I felt comfortable talking to Lary we waxed philosophical about weather, work, other things. Then came the cake. Mark had turned 50, the big five-o, half a century, on the other side of the hill, on a banana peel and picking up speed like no tomorrow. Now I understand why he was so vehement about getting here so fast, he didn’t have much time left…. Haha. Mark’s family was great, especially his mom, we all got a hug before we left and were on our way to the hotel.

Before the hotel, Mark, Lary and I decided to hit a local tavern, Shovelhead. Named appropriately as a biker bar, we walked in to the seedy place, it was like a scene from Wild Hogs. This was a real biker bar, everyone had tattoos, except me, Mark, Lary. I was afraid to ask where they got their ink, not being familiar with the local penitentiaries. If I wouldn’t be able to recognize the name, there would be that awkward silence, you know a real faux pas.

The bar was actually OK, although I would swear I saw the bar maid cleaning the glass she gave us by spitting and a dirty rag. Oh well, the alcohol would kill any germs… right? We stayed there for an hour and departed for our hotel….

Onto Day 3, Palm Beach, Florida